Academic interventions like competence-linked
teaching, learning and assessments need to be accompanied by an overhaul of the
existing governance structures.
ANALYSIS Updated: Mar 25, 2019 07:45 IST | Amitabh Kant
Approximately 29% of India’s population is
below the age of 14, and, at 250 million, we have the highest number of
school-going students in the world. Unfortunately, we also have a public
education system that is failing the young population by denying them quality
education.
To effect a large-scale transformation in
education, a systemic approach, consisting of comprehensive and coordinated set
of academic and administrative reforms, is needed. Academic interventions like
competence-linked teaching, learning and assessments need to be accompanied by
an overhaul of the existing governance structures.
Some states like Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal
Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha have implemented
these system-level reforms, leading to many early successes. Here are five key
lessons that emerge from these comprehensive change programmes that can be
useful for other states in their effort to improve their public education
systems.
One, embed grade competence in all classroom
transactions: More than half of our children studying in government schools
lack competencies appropriate to their grade levels, which when accumulated
over the years, lead to significant learning gaps. This is because teachers
focus on syllabus completion instead of emphasising the attainment of
competencies. Haryana has instituted a system of saksham taalika that takes the
shape of a table that defines grade competencies for all subjects for each
two-month cycle in an academic year. These grade competencies are mapped to all
teaching and learning material — specific chapters in the text books, state designed
remedial programmes and teacher training programmes. To close the loop,
assessments are conducted and mapped to the grade competence framework with
standardised statewide Summative Assessment Tests (SATs), conducted every two
months to track progress on these metrics over time.
Two, ingrain human enablement in the system:
For quality delivery of education, it is important to empower frontline workers
such as teachers as well as those working in the background such as education
officers, state board officials, etc. with appropriate skills and resources. In
recognition of this, states have taken several steps. Himachal Pradesh, for
example, has launched the TeacherApp, which is a tech-based teacher training
platform that provides bite-sized content for easy consumption by teachers.
Remote training ensures that teachers do not lose time in travel and can
upskill themselves continuously. Another great example of human enablement
comes from Andhra Pradesh where an assessment cell has been created with 13 subject
matter experts. This cell aims to build capacity of relevant stakeholders.
Three, leverage data/ technology to improve
efficiency: According to a report by the National Institute of Education
Planning and Administration (NIEPA), teachers spend less than one-fifth of
their time on teaching activities, with more than double their teaching time
being spent on administrative activities such as data collection, material
distribution and redressing their human resource and personnel issues. It is
widely accepted that accountability in delivery of services is achieved when
stakeholders are enabled to better perform their core functions by minimising
time and labour on tasks removed from their primary responsibilities. In
acknowledgement of this, states like Rajasthan have sought to free up teacher
time by creating an enterprise system like the shaala darpan web portal. This
portal allows for faster grievance redressal, online transfers and postings,
and acts as a single source for all school-related data, eliminating the need
for repeated data collection for various material distribution and other
activities.
Four, strengthen monitoring and evaluation
systems: Most states have an established system of inspection of schools by the
education department to ascertain their quality, but the reality is that the
target numbers of school inspections are rarely met because of manpower
shortages. Mindful of this, states like Andhra Pradesh have created systems
that set in place publicly available, real time and data backed monitoring
mechanisms.
Five, build momentum through a public
campaign: All the above interventions are dependent on stakeholder commitment
and their consistent high performance. This can only be brought about by a
steadfast political and bureaucratic commitment to the goal of improving
learning outcomes. A dynamic campaign with the support of highest levels of
political leadership needs to be built to provide momentum and align all
stakeholders on a single transformation road map.
While these interventions are replicable
everywhere, their success or failure ultimately rests on a state’s ability to move
these parts simultaneously. Given the right momentum, these interventions can,
over time, mature into transformative juggernauts such that they both
individually thrive, and collectively drive the education system to produce
consistently better outcomes.
Amitabh Kant is CEO, NITI Aayog
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